Voice Assistants of Amazon and Microsoft Build Rapport

Published By : 09 May 2018 |Published By : QYRESEARCH

While Amazon and Microsoft that are sworn rivals in the cloud-computing market, they are now collaborating with one another in another field – voice controlled personal assistants. Both their products in this area, namely Cortana and Alexa are seen forging friendships by talking to one another. This was envisaged in August 2017.

The two companies demonstrated the association in the following manner: Cortana executive Megan Saunders got Alexa to order milk and get Cortana to check schedule and shoot an email.

In the second demonstration Tom Taylor who is the senior Vice President of Alexa got Cortana at work to check on his restaurant reservation. He then requested Cortana to ask Alexa to hail an Uber cab. At one point Alexa even declared her liking for Cortana.

Collaboration Yet to Be Commercialized

The collaboration between the two, showcased on Monday at the Build conference for developers in Seattle organized by Microsoft, is currently being tested. The technical integration has been delayed – it was set to happen last year itself.

The idea of generating an association between the voice assistants was generated on suggestion of Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon to Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft last year.

Multinational technology behemoths are going for voice-activated digital assistants to extend their outreach in the saturated and highly competitive market. Such products that can be used at workplaces, home, and cars can gain them individual consumers. As per research firm Tractica, the enterprise market just for voice-activated digital assistant software will garner 1 billion users by 2025 and become worth US$7.7 billion by then.